Good News and More Canaries

I'm pleased and delighted to be able to tell you that we have at last completed the sale of my mother's house in Essex.  We are having to sell it to pay for her care in a care home and have had a roller coaster ride over the past 6 months when the first proposed purchaser had to pull out.  Happily we have been lucky enough to find another buyer and the sale has completed.  What a great Christmas present for us all, although it is tinged with sadness as this was my mother's home for 49 years and my own home from the age of 9 until I went to college at the age of 18. At least now we can feel confident that the money is available for Mum's continuing care.

As is usual at this time of year time is rapidly disappearing and it's taken me over a week to follow up on my blog about our holiday in the Canaries.   As you might expect from an artist I was always on the lookout for interesting textures and patterns in our wanderings ashore.  These houses in back streets in Madeira and La Palma caught our eye.

I particularly like the house in the third image which not only looks as if part of it is upside down but has some lovely textures that invite stitched interpretation.

These wonderful tree trunk and seedpod shapes also caught our eye.  The seedpods were about 10" long!

These amazing painted faces adorned doors in Madeira.

So much inspiration for future work!

It's amazing what unexpected sights you do see wandering about on a sunny autumn afternoon in the Canaries.  We wondered what we had come across when these characters walked down the street:

It was a very surreal experience to sit in the sunshine and watch as all these people in turn came out and told their stories.  Apparently we had come across a Festival of story telling and dance performed by La Mascara Theatre Group with the Vigord Jazz Dance Group.  My DH has a good selection of more detailed photos here.

I leave you with a photo of two collages by Cesar Manrique (excuse the reflections as they are under glass).  These two charmers are providing me with inspiration for my next two journal quilts which I really should have finished by now, especially with Christmas coming up.  I have a busy week coming up but hopefully I will be able to show you progress on my versions by the end of the week.